BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF FREDERICK WOHLER. 549 



has recently been published in Germany. Wohler had found in a 

 mineral what appeared to him to be the oxide of an unknown metal, 

 and he sent a specimen of the strange substance to Berzelius with an 

 interrogation-mark. The new substance proved to be oxide of vana- 

 dium, and the fact that Wohler narrowly escaped discovering it led 

 Berzelius to write the following letter, which we translate entire: 



Stockholm, January 22, 1S31. 



.... In reference to the specimen sent by you, designated with an interro- 

 gation-mark, I will relate the following story : In the remote regions of the north 

 there dwells the goddess Vanadis, beautiful and lovely. One day there was a 

 knock at her door. The goddess was weary, and thought she would wait to see 

 if the knock would be repeated, but there was no repetition, and whoever it was 

 went away. The goddess, curious to see who it could be to whom it appeared 

 to be a matter of so much indifference whether he was admitted or not, ran to the 

 window to look at the retreating figure. " Ah ! " said she to herself, " it is that 

 fellow Wohler; he deserves his fate for the indifference he showed about coming 

 in." A short time afterward there was another knock at the door, but this time 

 so persistent and energetic that the goddess went herself to open it. It was Sef- 

 strom who appeared at the threshold, and thus it was that he discovered vana- 

 dium. Your specimen is, in fact, oxide of vanadium. But the chemist who has 

 invented a way for the artificial production of an organic body can well afford 

 to forego all claims to the discovery of a new metal, for it would be possible to 

 discover ten unknown elements without the expenditure of so much genius as 

 appertains to the masterly work which you, in association with Liebig, have ac- 

 complished and have just communicated to the scientific world. Johan Jakob 

 Berzelius. 



Notwithstanding the great advantages which his position offered 

 in Berlin, and the favorable prospects open to him in the future, Wohler 

 was constrained, for domestic reasons, to resign his professorship in 

 1832, and to remove to Cassel, where his wife's family resided. For 

 several years he held no official position, and occupied himself with the 

 translation of the third edition of Berzelius's text-book of chemistry, 

 and with the yearly reports. He spent some time with Liebig, at 

 'Giessen, where the two friends completed their important research on 

 the oil of bitter almonds. The large supply of arsenical nickel which 

 had accumulated as an incidental product at the prussian-blue factory 

 in Cassel led Wohler to invent a method by which the nickel could 

 be economically separated, to be subsequently used in the manufacture 

 of German silver. The process succeeded so well that extensive nickel- 

 works were established, yielding many thousand pounds for exportation 

 to Birmingham. He, at that time, proposed nickel as a suitable metal 

 for coinage, but no attention was paid to the suggestion. While Woh- 

 ler was residing at Cassel, a Gewerbeschule, similar to the one in 

 Berlin, was founded, and he was appointed to a position corresponding 

 to the one he had held in Berlin, and was one of the three officials 

 upon whom devolved the organization of the new institution. After- 

 ward Professors Buff and Phillips were added to the corps of teachers. 



